Spotlight on a disk
Spotlight doesn’t search the disks BeamDisk connects unless you turn it on. The exception is a Time Machine disk: Time Machine keeps Spotlight on for its backups.
Searching a disk has a cost: Spotlight reads the files on it to index them, which adds network traffic, mostly when it first scans the disk and when files change.
Turn Spotlight on or off
Section titled “Turn Spotlight on or off”- Open the disk’s page in BeamDisk’s window. The Spotlight row is in the Disk card, while the disk’s volume is mounted.
- The first time, click Turn On…, and BeamDisk asks you to select the disk’s volume, once, so it can change Spotlight’s setting there: select it and confirm.
- After that, the row is a switch: turn it on or off. The change applies at once, and the sidebar’s message line confirms it, such as Spotlight is on for Projects.
While Spotlight is on, a note under the switch says what it costs. If the row reads Changing…, macOS is still applying the change. Not available means Spotlight doesn’t index that volume, or macOS didn’t say; hover over it for which.
Selecting the volume once also lets Test Speed write its test files there, and the other way round.
When you format a disk
Section titled “When you format a disk”BeamDisk’s Format sheet has Let Spotlight search this disk, unchecked. Check it to have Spotlight on from the start: after formatting, BeamDisk asks you to select the new volume once, then turns Spotlight on. If you don’t select it, the disk is formatted all the same, with Spotlight off.
Time Machine disks
Section titled “Time Machine disks”A disk that holds Time Machine backups shows On, with no switch: Time Machine needs Spotlight for its backups and doesn’t let it be turned off. The note says the network traffic comes from Spotlight reading what’s backed up.